We invited friends over tonight for dinner and being outside poolside. I decided to try the Bob Reynolds beef tenderloin recipe on the grill. I bought 3.25 lbs of beef tenderloin from Dillons on my lunch hour today. I got home after work and started the grill then marinated the tenderloin in garlic salt, ground pepper, Paul Prudhomme Magic, olive oil and light soy sauce. I heated the grill to 300 degrees and put the tenderloin on. I turned it every 5 minutes for 35 minutes. Perfect medium rare! My sides were Barefoot Contessa corn salad and BC brocoli and garlic, tomatoes with basil and feta, and fresh cucumber, onion, apple cider vinegar, dash of sugar with pepper. Excellent meal outside by the pool. Jenny prepared an excellent bruschetta and for dessert we had angel food cake with vanilla ice cream rasberries, blueberries and blackberries. We also opened a bottle of Silver Oak cab that we had had for 14 years. It was wonderful too!

Chuck's brisket recipe

Gary and I had dinner with Chuck and Nickie last week and Chuck described the brisket he had recently grilled. Sunday would be a good afternoon to prepare it since it takes several hours of cooking and it was too darn hot at the lake. I got a 3.6lb choice brisket but Chuck had told me to go for Prime. I didn't have the option so went with what was available. Chuck said to heat the grill to 350 degrees and brown on both sides for 10 minutes. I ground sea salt and pepper and put a little of my rub on it prior to browning. Chuck said to remove from the grill and put on the rub. It was important to wrap it tight and I put 3 layers of Heavy Duty Reynolds wrap around it, added the plate setter and put it back on the grill. First time to use the plate setter and not having used it before all I can say is it worked. I reduced the temperature to 250 and let it cook for 3 hours. It was so incredibly juicy. My dad cut it opposite of the grain and we added a bit of the juice to it. Yum! I also prepared fresh green beans with vidalia onions and vegetable broth. I cooked them on the gas range for 1 1/2 hours. We also had Near East Couscous with Basil and Herbs along with a fresh salad. Wonderful meal and successful grill.

Turkey Tenderloins for a week night meal

Last night I grilled Honeysuckle White Cracked pepper turkey tenderloins. I added nothing to the 3 tenderloins and cooked them per the grill instructions at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, turning them over every 5 minutes. The vegetables consisted on new potatoes, red onion, yellow squash with rosemary. I seasoned them with Trader Joe's Sea Salt crystals, and McCormicks Black Pepper which were in containers you can grind. I cooked the vegetables along side of the turkey for 20 minutes. The turkey cooked to 165degrees and I should have kept the veggies on for the same length of time. I made a fresh salad with lettuce, home grown cucumbers and tomatoes with an olive oil and champagne vinegar dressing I made up. Nice meal and good leftovers for tonight!

Some desserts just can't be beat, I digress

I just have to mention the wonderful pies my sister has made in the last couple of weeks. For my dad's birthday she made a gooseberry pie with her neighbor's gooseberries. Then for Father's Day yesterday she made a strawberry pie, engraved with a heart and the initial's of dad, her husband Randy and Gary. The crust is divine and we ate them with Blue Bunny Vanilla Bean ice cream. Then over the weekend I made the good old chocolate chip cookies from the Joy of Cooking and real butter. They are not as good as my Aunt Patsy's but they are close! Enjoy the pictures as your mouth waters.

Sunday night Supper- more pork tenderloin plus some

Most Sunday nights I like to have my family over for dinner even if we have been to the lake but on June 13th my parents had a group of 13 friends (mostly in their 80's) having their free birthday dinner at their country club. I needed any easy meal for Gary and I and had not used the BGE in awhile. I got non-seasoned pork tenderloins and did my usual gig with them. For the veggie side on the grill I used small red potatoes cubed, a vildalia onion, yellow squash from a friend in Gary's office and a bit of parsley from my garden. I heated the grill to 350 degrees and put it all on for 25 minutes. In one of my cooking magazines at saw an easy recipe for asparagus with prosciutto wrapped around it and cooked on the grill. I got the prosciutto at Target. So I prepared that with a bit of olive oil and put them on the grill for 4 minutes. The pictures show the results and we had another good meal.

Pork loin steak and turkey tenderloins

May 11th I wanted to prepare enough food for 2 or 3 days during our busy workweek so I saw pork loin steaks and a turkey tenderloin that looked good. I've never prepared either one so I ground the Trader Joe's sea salt, used Penzey's California pepper and The Spice House Bronzeville Rib rub. I didn't use any wood chips and heated the grill to 375 degrees. I cubed russet potatoes, add the above salt and pepper along with a little olive oil and pat of butter then put one fresh rosemary sprig in each foil packet. I put it all on the grill together and cooked for about 30 minutes. I added a little steamed brocoli to the plate and everything tasted wonderful. Made me feel better after my last attempts and I did it without James assisting.

Cooking without James and there is not always success on the BGE

I tried chicken breasts and tenderloin with light seasonings and no smoke on the chicken and these two meals were not too flavorful. The chicken could have used more seasoning and I had purchased a generic brand tenderloin and the quality made a difference.

Two days later more BGE fun with James

So it was two days later, April 20th, and since Sal was out of town still James came over to cook again. Gary is loving this because he can roll in from his spin class and enjoy a fabulous meal again. We decided to cook salmon so I used the recipe from the BGE manual. I got the salmon at lunch then marinated it all afternoon in Trader Joe's sea salt, maple syrup, brown sugar and soy sauce. James brought Alder wood chips to throw on and we cooked the salmon about 12 minutes. He said to push your finger into the salmon and if the dent stays you're done! Voila! Double delicious and one of the best salmon flavors I've experienced. Love it!

Smoking Pork Tenderloins for the first time on the BGE

James brought apple wood chips which he had soaked in water for at least 1/2 hour. We had the temperature on the grill at around 400 degrees. We had taken the veggies off quickly then pulled the grate off with the BGE handle. James threw in the wood chips, I placed the grate back on and put the tenderloins on the grill. The tenderloins were simply prepared using Trader Joe's sea salt, Penzey's California Pepper and a Chicago neighborhood rub from The Spice House in Evanston, Illinois. We cooked them for 35 minutes and our meat thermometer said 155 inside. James told me to open the lid slightly, put it back down and then open it all of the way. I prepared Texmex basmati rice along with the veggies. The flavor of the meat was yummy and I knew I had made the right decision to purchase my new BGE.

Linda convinced me to buy the BGE

Linda and I have alot of common interests. We both like fashion, fly-fishing and cooking. We share ideas over lunch so after talking to her about how much she and Tom enjoy their BGE, I decided to make the purchase. So it arrived in April, and Gary was out of town. Dad came over and we spent the evening putting it all together. Not too difficult. The next day I invited James over to provide instructions and assist since he had been cooking on his for over a year.

James and my BGE manual suggested to only use BGE lump charcoal and fill the grill just below the second rim from the top. We lit 2 pieces of a BGE starter and it took around 10 minutes to get the flame going. We decided to put our veggies directly on the grill on a BGE grill pan after we had put olive oil and ground Trader Joe's Sea Salt crystals on them. They were on about 10 minutes then we removed them from the grill.

How Green Egg Girl started

Chuck McC and I were talking business on the phone in March but then we digressed to cooking on the Big Green Egg. After much conversation about tri-tips, salmon, smoked turkey, chicken, veggies and on and on, I thought this might be a fun thing for me to try. He forwarded a few recipes so I started asking other friends about their BGE's.